05 July 2010
Screening in Italian
Italian migrants enjoy a coffee at the Golden Valley Café in Myrtleford in the 1960s on one of the popular Italian Cinema nights that ran during the "heyday" of cinema in the region.
Related links
Related stories
-
Snowtown screenwriter takes out AACTA award 08/03/2012
-
Animating Life 19/09/2011
-
Experimental film takes top prize 26/07/2011
-
Film royalty comes to Melbourne 14/07/2011
-
Indigenous cinema shows reel culture 30/05/2011
-
Students' music doco premieres at St Kilda festival 27/05/2011
A new book celebrating Italian cinema in Myrtleford in the 1960s and based on research by RMIT University’s Deb Verhoeven was recently published.
Parlato in Italiano - The Heyday of Italian Cinema in Myrtleford in the 1960s is a tribute to the cinema as a significant meeting place in the cultural landscape and memory of a regional area - Myrtleford.
The book resulted from research carried out by Associate Professor Verhoeven that looked at Italian and Greek cinema-going in Australia.
In the early 1960s, the Victorian town of Myrtleford boasted a "theatre precinct" in Myrtle Street.
Two venues served as cinemas, both presenting weekly programs that included films of all kinds screened in Italian - "parlato in italiano". In the same street, the Golden Valley Café gave the precinct a cosmopolitan atmosphere, especially on movie nights.
Associate Professor Verhoeven said: "The result of over three years of research, the book is especially timely and topical for two reasons.
"Firstly, in view of the advanced ages of so many connected with Italian film screenings in Myrtleford during the 1950s, 60s and 70s; secondly, in view of the closure of the tobacco industry in the district.
"The demise of the tobacco industry, formalised in October 2006, is well recognised as a socio-economic fact of profound significance to the Italian Australian community local to Myrtleford and points to an urgent need to record, preserve, and share the community’s history; to celebrate its contribution to the cultural and commercial landscape of the town and surrounds."
The book includes prefaces by Sir James Gobbo, AC CVO, and Daryl McIntyre, CEO National Film and Sound Archive, as well as edited interviews, photographs, press clippings and archival documents.
The book also features an article by Associate Professor Verhoeven on the wider context of the "1960s heyday", arising from her research on migrant cinema and cinema audiences in postwar Australia.
Parlato in Italiano – The Heyday of Italian Cinema in Myrtleford in the 1960s ($20.00) is edited by John Taylor and Cynthia Troup and published by the Myrtleford and District Historical Society.
